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The Sorsogon Museum and Heritage Center, Inc. is now formally incorporated and registered with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) as a non-profit, non-stock private corporation.
The Museum corporation has already identified the exact location for the museum. It will be the old Sorsogon Provincial Hospital building, just at the back of the present Sangguniang Panlalawigan building inside the capitol park.
The corporation’s stated objectives include, primarily, the establishment of the Sorsogon Provincial Museum and Heritage Center, which shall be located inside the Provincial Capitol compound in Sorsogon City; formulate and implement policies related to the operation, maintenance and management of the facility; collect, receive, retrieve and recover Sorsogon artifacts, relics, antiquities, memorabilia and historical materials from any and all sources, including those from the National Museum, for safe keeping, display and exposition in the Sorsogon Provincial Museum and Heritage Center; receive, collect, raise, solicit or access funds, such as donations, grants, endowments, etc., from any and all sources, both public and private, for the operation, maintenance and management of the Sorsogon Provincial Museum and Heritage Center.
The building itself is of American vintage, having been constructed sometime during the early 1900s. Sometime during the 1970s, after the completion of the construction of a new hospital building in Barangay Macabog, the old building was abandoned and was soon taken over by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) for use as its local branch office. It was soon again abandoned sometime in the early 1990s after the GSIS transferred to its own new building also inside the Capitol complex. The old building has remained abandoned ever since, yet, it is supposed to be a historical landmark.
The Sorsogon Museum and Heritage Center, Inc. plans to restore and renovate the old building for re-use as museum and provincial heritage center. As planned, it will house, not only a museum of Sorsogon artifacts and memorabilia, but also a historical library, audio/visual/music room, art gallery, folk arts display area, a small performance hall, function rooms for seminars, workshops and meetings, a café and even a dormitory for visiting lecturers and artists.
A Memorandum of Agreement is expected to be drawn up soon between the Sorsogon provincial government and the Museum corporation so that restoration work on the facility can start. In fact, the Museum corporation has already passed a resolution urging the provincial government to draw up the MOA so that restoration work on the facility could start as early as possible. The National Commission for Culture and the Arts, according to Museum officers, has expressed its willingness to send a technical assistance team, or a team of expert historical restorers and architects for an ocular inspection of the site and assist in planning the restoration work.
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